POLITICO Playbook PM: Trump heading to the border Thursday

President Donald Trump’s conservative backers on Capitol Hill have been privately urging a national shutdown address for some time. | Chris Kleponis - Pool/Getty Images

TRUMP TO THE BORDER … SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: “President @realDonaldTrump will travel to the Southern border on Thursday to meet with those on the frontlines of the national security and humanitarian crisis. More details will be announced soon.”

-- DOES THIS MEAN everyone assumes the shutdown will last through Thursday?

-- TRUMP'S CONSERVATIVE backers on Capitol Hill have been privately urging an address for some time.

THOUGHT EXERCISE … IF PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP builds a wall on the southern border through emergency measures, do you think this will go over easily with a Democratic House? This will end up in litigation, investigations, etc.

WHAT’S AT STAKE …

HELENA BOTTEMILLER EVICH: “Food stamps for millions of Americans become pawn in shutdown fight”: “As the partial government shutdown extends into its third week, the Department of Agriculture won't say how long it can keep paying out food stamp benefits for the nearly 39 million people who depend on them each month. …

“Senior administration officials said last week they think the program has enough money for January, but not enough to cover all benefits in February … But the Trump administration may in fact have more leeway to use reserve funds to keep food stamps afloat if Congress and President Donald Trump can’t reach an agreement to break the impasse … In the meantime, however, both the White House and Democrats are trying to use SNAP as a point of leverage.” POLITICO

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING …

-- THE PRESIDENT tweeted at 8:38 a.m.:“Congressman Adam Smith, the new Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, just stated, ‘Yes, there is a provision in law that says a president can declare an emergency. It’s been done a number of times.’ No doubt, but let’s get our deal done in Congress!”Quint Forgey on Smith’s initial comments

-- CNN’S MANU RAJU (@mkraju): “Adam Smith responds with @KateBolduan: ‘There is no national emergency. ... The president can declare a national emergency and take money from [DOD] ... It’d be wrong, horrible policy. ... He’d be challenged in court ... It’s a terrible idea, but he can do it.’”

-- A DIFFERENT TAKE … MSNBC’S KYLE GRIFFIN (@kylegriffin1): “Jeff Merkley on CNN says Trump ‘absolutely’ does not have the authority to declare a nat’l emergency over the wall. ‘In 2000, there were 200,000 people at peak coming to our border ... We’re at about a fifth of that ... How could this possibly be framed as a nat’l emergency?’”

-- CAITLIN OPRYSKO: “Coons: Trump’s steel-slat proposal is ‘progress’ toward ending shutdown”: Sen. Chris “Coons (D-Del.), in an interview with Fox News’s ‘Fox & Friends,’ urged the president to stick with his proposal, made to Democrats over the weekend alongside additional funding for other needs at the southern border. The lawmaker called the idea ‘a minor but important difference in technology,’ with the caveat that Trump has at times been inconsistent in his demands and rhetoric on the issue.” POLITICO

BREAKING -- WSJ’S JOSH ZUMBRUN: “World Bank President Resigns to Join Investment Firm”: “World Bank President Jim Yong Kim plans to resign on Feb. 1 to join a firm focused on infrastructure investments, leaving the bank nearly three years before his term was set to expire.

“Mr. Kim’s unexpected resignation, announced Monday, will potentially set off a fight between the Trump administration and critics of U.S. control at the World Bank, which is the world’s largest development-finance institution. … In the bank’s seven-decade history, its president has always been picked by the U.S., but many other countries have sought an end to Washington’s control of the pick.” WSJ

Playbook PM

Sign up for our must-read newsletter on what's driving the afternoon in Washington.

Email

By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time.

BULLETIN … AP/JERUSALEM: “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will deliver a ‘dramatic announcement’ set to coincide with the evening news broadcast. Netanyahu said in statement on Twitter on Monday that he would broadcast a ‘special announcement to the press.’

“The embattled prime minister’s mysterious statement left even veteran political reporters baffled as to its nature. There was speculation it was related to investigations into alleged corruption by Netanyahu. Police have recommended that Netanyahu be indicted in a series of corruption probes.” AP

Good Monday afternoon. SIREN … SCOTUS WATCH -- MATTHEW CHOI: “Ruth Bader Ginsburg will miss oral arguments for the first time”: “Supreme Court spokesperson Kathleen Arberg confirmed Ginsburg would not be at the court Monday. Ginsburg will still read transcripts of arguments scheduled for Monday, but remain at home.” POLITICO

A message from AARP:

The big drug companies don’t see us as people. They see us as profits. Americans pay the highest drug prices in the world while they rake in billions. We shouldn’t have to choose between buying medication and buying food. Congress, stop the greed. Cut drug prices now. https://www.aarp.org/Rx

TRADE WARS -- WAPO’S ANNA FIFIELD and GERRY SHIH in Beijing: “Trade talks open in Beijing amid optimism about an end to U.S.-China dispute”: “Chinese stock markets rose sharply Monday, partly on hopes for progress on a trade deal. In a sign that the working-level meeting appeared to be off to a good start, China’s economic czar, Vice Premier Liu He, dropped by the talks to spur on the negotiators. … An American delegation led by Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish arrived in Beijing at the weekend for two days of negotiations on Monday and Tuesday. …

“Before this week’s talks, China has been proactively making gestures to show it is serious about committing to reforms unlike in past rounds of negotiations … Now, the question is not only whether China and the United States can reach a satisfactory deal this week on a list of ‘deliverables,’ but also how to make sure China will keep its promises.” WaPo

-- AP/BEIRUT: “Kurdish official asks for U.S. clarifications over withdrawal”: “Speaking to The Associated Press from northern Syria Monday, Badran Jia Kurd says the Kurds have not been informed of any change in the U.S. position and were in the dark about the latest comments by U.S. national security adviser John Bolton and what they indicated.” AP

“The flows of money to, from, and among those and other arms of the Leo network can make it difficult to trace the actual sources of funding for his advocacy efforts. And some of that money has flowed directly to a Trump political group: the committee set up to pay for his 2017 inauguration.” The Daily Beast

BEYOND THE BELTWAY -- “Florida Set to Restore Voting Rights to Felons Amid Threats of Lawsuits,” by WSJ’s Arian Campo-Flores: “Some Florida officials are balking at the state’s new amendment restoring voting rights to about 1.4 million people with felony records that is set to take effect Tuesday. …

“Opponents, including Republican Gov.-elect Ron DeSantis, say before the amendment can be implemented, the legislature needs to pass a bill to clarify its terms and fulfill its intent. Supporters say it should be implemented immediately. The disagreement is generating confusion and the threat of lawsuits.” WSJ

AFTERNOON READ -- JOHN LAWRENCE in THE ATLANTIC: “When America Stared Into the Abyss: The untold story of how America’s political leaders crossed the aisle to stave off financial collapse in 2008”: “Ten years ago this past September, financial markets imploded, threatening to collapse the entire U.S. economy and setting off an extraordinary, and improbable, collaboration between the deeply divided Congress and the Bush administration.

“Prospects for successful cooperation were inauspicious: a highly partisan atmosphere, significant divisions within each party, deep suspicions of the administration’s credibility, displeasure over Bush’s indifferent record on regulating the financial-services industry, and a national election just six weeks away. And yet, remarkably, a political system widely castigated as dysfunctional proved capable of passing an enormously expensive, complex, and contentious piece of legislation that prevented a second Great Depression.” The Atlantic

AFTERNOON LISTEN -- DAN DIAMOND’S PULSE CHECK PODCAST: Family separations were “unconscionable,” says a former HHS official. The Trump administration’s decision to separate thousands of migrant families at the border was “an ill-fated policy … devised by Jeff Sessions and Stephen Miller,” Chris Meekins, a Trump appointee who helped put those families back together, said on POLITICO’s “Pulse Check” podcast. But Meekins, who left the Trump administration last week, defended the care that migrant children received in HHS facilities and said he’s proud of the work that agency officials performed to reunite most families within a month. Listen

DEPT. OF MAKING MOVES -- Former Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and Lamar Smith (R-Texas) have joined Akin Gump’s public law and policy practice as a senior adviser and senior consultant, respectively. The announcement

MEDIAWATCH -- DALLAS MORNING NEWS’ DOM DIFURIO (@DomDiFurio): “The newsroom just got news that the Dallas Morning News is laying off 40 people amidst a ‘restructuring’. We’re told about half of those will be from the newsroom.”

-- Rachael Bade will join WaPo’s national politics team to cover Congress in March. She currently is a congressional reporter at POLITICO. … Karen Finney is now a political analyst at CNN. She most recently was senior adviser to Stacey Abrams and is a veteran Democratic strategist and former MSNBC host.

-- FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Josh Resnik is now chief content officer and publisher/SVP of FiscalNote, which recently purchased CQ Roll Call. He most recently was COO and general counsel at software startup Spree Commerce and is also a Gannett and AOL alum. He told us that FiscalNote is building new studio space for both video and audio and plans to hire a number of new journalists, although he declined to give specific numbers. Last week CQ Roll Call hired Herb Jackson of the (Bergen, N.J.) Record.

TRANSITIONS -- Kathleen Mellody is now senior government affairs officer at the Investment Company Institute. She previously was head of federal affairs at The Hartford. … Jarrod Backous will be partner and VP of social media firm 4degre.es’ new D.C. office. He previously was political adviser at EMILY’s List. … Kelley Hudak is now a VP at Cassidy & Associates. She previously was coalitions director for Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.).

NSC ARRIVAL LOUNGE -- Richard Goldberg will be director for countering Iranian weapons of mass destruction at the White House NSC. He most recently was a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Jewish Insider

WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Eamon Javers, Washington correspondent at CNBC and a POLITICO alum, and Maureen Javers, a former consultant to Morning Stanley, on Thursday welcomed Norah Mary Javers, who joins Declan, Evelyn and Hugh.Pic

WEEKEND WEDDINGS -- Jill Bader, director of strategic partnerships at Fred Davis’s Strategic Perception and an alum of Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, on Saturday night married Dave Thompson, a program manager at Anixter, at a wedding in Nashville. Pool report: “Jill and Dave met at the Nashville annual steeplechase when Dave’s friends ran out of beer and crashed Jill’s father’s hospitality tent.” Pic

-- Dan Pollock, founder of Cannibal Creative, a creative design and technology firm, married Danielle Geanacopoulos, associate director at the Rockefeller Foundation, in a wedding at the Cosmos Club. The couple met working for Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).Pics ... Another pic

Follow Us

About The Author : Anna Palmer

Anna Palmer is a senior Washington correspondent for POLITICO and co-author of POLITICO’s Playbook, the most indispensable morning newsletter for the biggest influencers in politics.

Anna covers the world of Congress and politics, and has successfully chronicled the business of Washington insiders for years. Her stories take readers behind the scenes for the biggest fights in Washington as well as the 2016 election.

Along with her Playbook co-author Jake Sherman, Anna is the author of "The Hill to Die on: The Battle for Congress and the Future of Trump's America," which will be published by Crown on April 2019.

She is also editorial director of Women Rule, a POLITICO platform that is dedicated to expanding leadership opportunities for women at all stages of their career.

Prior to becoming POLITICO’s senior Washington correspondent, Anna was the co-author of the daily newsletter, POLITICO Influence, considered a must-read on K Street.

Anna previously covered House leadership and lobbying as a staff writer for Roll Call. She got her start in Washington journalism as a lobbying business reporter for the industry newsletter Influence. She has also worked at Legal Times, where she covered the intersection of money and politics for the legal and lobbying industry, first as a staff writer and then as an editor.

A native of North Dakota, Anna is a graduate of St. Olaf College, where she was executive editor of the weekly campus newspaper, the Manitou Messenger. She lives in Washington, D.C.

About The Author : Jake Sherman

Jake Sherman is a senior writer for POLITICO and co-author of POLITICO’s Playbook, the most indispensable morning newsletter for the biggest influencers in politics.

Jake is the top congressional reporter on Capitol Hill and has built a career on landing hard-to-get scoops.

Since 2009, Jake has chronicled all of the major legislative battles on Capitol Hill, and has also traveled the country to cover the battle for control of Congress.

Jake takes readers inside the rooms where decisions are made. His high-impact reporting resulted in the resignation of Aaron Schock.

Before landing at POLITICO, Jake worked in the Washington bureaus of The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He also interned on the metro desk of The Journal News (N.Y.) and, during high school, worked on the sports desk of the Stamford Advocate (Conn.).

Jake is a Connecticut native, and a graduate of The George Washington University — where he edited The GW Hatchet — and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Jake lives in Washington with his wife Irene, and listens to an unhealthy amount of Grateful Dead and Phish.

About The Author : Daniel Lippman

Daniel Lippman is a reporter for POLITICO and a co-author of POLITICO's Playbook, the most indispensable morning newsletter for the biggest influencers in politics.

Before joining POLITICO, he was a fellow covering environmental news for E&E Publishing and a reporter for The Wall Street Journal in New York. He has also interned for McClatchy Newspapers and Reuters. During a stint freelancing in 2013, he traveled to the Turkish-Syrian border to cover the impact of the Syrian civil war for The Huffington Post and CNN.com.

He graduated from The Hotchkiss School in 2008 and from The George Washington University in 2012. Daniel hails from the Berkshires in western Massachusetts and enjoys playing tennis, seeing movies and trying out new restaurants in his free time.

About The Author : Eli Okun

Eli Okun is a Playbook producer and Playbook PM co-author.

Before joining POLITICO in 2017, he worked as a reporter for the New Hampshire Union Leader, covering local news and the 2016 election. He has also written for The Texas Tribune, Providence Business News and GlobalPost.

A Maryland native, he graduated from Brown University, where he studied international relations and was editor-in-chief of The Brown Daily Herald.

About The Author : Garrett Ross

Garrett Ross is a Playbook producer and Playbook PM co-author.

Before joining POLITICO in 2017, he interned on The New York Times' copy desk and reported for The Associated Press on the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Despite calling Indiana, Kentucky and Maryland home, he graduated from Penn State University, where he studied print and digital journalism and served as editor-in-chief of The Daily Collegian.